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Singing the Postpartum Blues Depression after pregnancy is a problem that needs quick relief, but are meds the answer? 
Though women suffering from postpartum depression need quick relief, two categories of antidepressants that typically take six to eight weeks to work have been shown to be effective in new mothers, shows a study of 109 new moms published in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology. A majority of women who took tricyclics and serotonin reuptake inhibitors responded to the drugs within two to four weeks. “We’ve been treating postpartum depression based on the assumption that drugs that work for a woman with depression under usual circumstances will work for a woman who experiences depression after giving birth,” says Dr. Katherine Wisner, a psychiatry, obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “But there have not been studies that provide scientific proof that this was an effective and safe course of treatment,” Wisner says. “Treating these women based on that assumption was simply not good enough, and we felt compelled to provide scientific evidence to guide postpartum depression treatment decisions.” |
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